Regional accreditation of Jones International University (JIU) - the first entirely virtual university accredited by the US regional accreditation agency - sparked heated discussions in academic circles. Concerns about changing roles of academia and faculty were countered with unbinding enthusiasm for the new teaching opportunities.

This presentation uses notes form the 5 years of active online teaching at Jones International University as a base to examine what is changing in teaching, faculty roles, student responsibilities and collegiate culture when we decide to deliver education through a network of computers.

KEYWORDS
online teaching
online learning
virtual university
online pedagogy

INTRODUCTION

It appears, based on archeological records, that people learned before we invented classroom. We have -- sometimes -- learned in them. I would hypothesize that we will somehow learn when the classrooms are no longer around. The question, of course is what we will learn.1

This statement by John McDaid names the central theme of my presentation. Based on the experience of five years of active teaching and administration at Jones International University (JIU) -- the first fully online, regionally accredited university in the United States -- I will attempt to outline changes to teaching and learning processes that happen when online environment replaces face to face classroom.

After a short introduction of JIU’s teaching model I will focus on the following four questions.

1. How our teaching practices change when we teach online?
2. How does the role of faculty change in online environments?
3. How do the students’ responsibilities change in online environments?
4. How do we change our collegiate culture by creating online universities?

My professional background in media ecology and my experience at JIU thought me that in order to use technology wisely we need to question it. Therefore, when looking at the changes mentioned above I will ask some broad questions. I will ask not only what are the benefits of online learning, but also what are the disadvantages of online teaching. I will ask what we can and cannot learn in electronic contexts, and whether some things are more effectively learned in other contexts. These questions reflect my personal and professional belief that it is our responsibility as educators to look at the changes we are implementing and consider what old educational ideas need to be saved when we invent new ways of teaching and learning.

If this sound like a surprisingly conservative agenda expressed by a faculty of the university that prides itself to be at the forefront of educational changes, it is only a surface contradiction. JIU's model always included careful consideration of how we should translate valuable educational practices into online delivery models. In other words, one of the most important lessons that we have learned at J

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